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One week ago I was gobsmacked by the shopping habits of Americans on Black Friday!

It actually started on Thursday night, thanksgiving and we left our turkey to visit Target but turned around and came away with our jaw's hitting the ground at the shear madness that was black Friday shopping.!

Door busters, those are the deals that get the shoppers in the door, how many of these deals there are for the 1000's of customers that pile through the doors, controversial marketing at its best.

One week later and I have missed so many post on sweet deals that I have decided to scrap those and offer you some BLACK FRIDAY DOOR BUSTERS

1. One A4 sheet of rubber , unpacked and made up of 8 Leanne Ellis stamps which sell at 4.95 each as singles for a fantastic Black Friday price. here

4. Gorjuss stamps from Personal Impressions will revert back to full price next month.

5. American shoppers can get FREE postage when you spend US$50 over on www.sugarnellie.com,
remember that packets are dispatched from Philadelphia and will not be liable for custom charges.

That's all the deals I have time for today as I must rush to the Post Office with the Funkykits orders, we ran out of packaging today so I am sorry if you get a simpler envelope this time but I did not want to wait until Monday to catch up with the back log we occurred while on holiday.

Hello sweet friends. I hope you've had a wonderful week and lots of fun things scheduled for the weekend. There are only a few weeks left til Christmas and I have so many things still to do. I think the only thing I'm ahead on are my Christmas cards ... and I have another one to share with you today!

This sweet image is one of the newer digi images Christmas Puppets. Isn't he adorable playing with his cute little hand puppets? He's colored with copics and colored pencils and I added a bit of Glamour Dust for some sparkle. The sentiment is from the Crafty Impressions' Seasons Greetings stamp set. You can find this digi and the beautiful sentiments over at Funky Kits. I added some ribbon, a sparkly berry spray, a jinglebell and some pearls.

It might not be Sunday and I failed to schedule my post before I went, you don't want to know how crazy it has been.

I'm home, it was long journey but uneventful. We got up to a christmas wonderland on Tuesday which sent me into a wee panic knowing that I had to drive back to to Newark on slow moving roads. Nothing worse that being late to the airport when so much rides on getting booked in on time. Read on if you want to know the story but I may have to post it over several days as I have a lot to catch up with today.

Lets start at the begining.

On leaving the house, Cameron anounced that he could not find his driving licence, had not seen it in years so why did he not tell me this so that I could request a new one before we went? Why did he say yes to driving a 12 seater mini bus? Lucky for us I did have my licence with me and needless to say had no choice in facing the immentent task of driving in NJ.

At Aberdeen airport it was clear that the fog blanket down south was causing havoc with flight, some to London were cancelled but ours to Amstedam was at least still on. One hour late we arrived in Amsterdam and missed the connecting flight even if we did run all the way. OH the plane was there, right there! But no the gate was closed and the powers that be said no (insert rude words to give you the true feeling of what I thought about the powers that be).
Give KLM their due, they put us up in a fantastic hotel, all meal, leisure club with pool and a huge family room.
Next day, 24 hours late our journey continued, the car was down sized to a SUV with no refund on the differance in cost (hey I did not think I would be that lucky).

The New Jersey turn pike.........OMG that was one white nuckle ride I never wanted to do again! Were we even going in the right direction?

Were arrived to an almost empty house as everyone was busy doing their own thing. Eventurally, the family was re united. {oxoxox]

Lets get a good nights sleep because tomorrow we are off to Canada.

When the American say its a staight 8hr drive up to Canada, they do realy mean straight. Beautiful day as we drove and drove all the way staight up thru The Pocono Mountains , then NY state, over 1000 islands and into Canada. Up by Ottawa and over to Renfrew and a swing by Pembroke to see family before crossing the bridge over the Ottawa river into Quebec and the holiday home of Debbie's inlaw's.
So very tranquil, overlooking the huge river with it's own little beach, absolutely beautiful and the complete opposite to the city life of Philadelphia, I can totaly see the draw.

Two days on Bee Gees Farm near Pembroke was one of the highlights to the boys holiday. Nancy and I did a little bit of shopping and an emergency trip to the dentist for me!
Things I loved in Canada...
the family retreat, so very peacefull and beautifully set by the river.
the Canadian relatives, very down to earth and welcoming.
black squirells running on a patch of grass in the town centre of Pembroke
seeing wild turkeys in the field just like our geese
Poutine, well I would not say it was a favourite of mine but Megan liked it.
I am just sorry that the pumpkins were ploughed into the field as I always wanted to see a real
pumpkin patch.

We arrived late on Saturday and drove back to Pheonixville on Tuesday, 8 hours each way, straight roads!

If you need a little prod to get you feeling merry (without the eggnog -though I do love the stuff myself - Karen did you get to taste some eggnog over in Philly??) then you need look no further than the new challenge over on the Sugar Bowl blog, where you will find a gorgeous selection of Christmas cards from the Sweeties.

The Christmas digi images have proved to be a very popular choice. Louise's gorgeous card uses ForestFriends, such a perfectly sweet image.

I have a very bright and colourful creation to show you today... sunglasses at the ready! Well I needed a bit of a change from all those frosty Christmas cards.

This gorgeous stamp is called Poise and is one of the older Sugar Nellie stamps by Leanne Ellis - isn't she fab? I paper pieced her dress, and coloured the rest of her with a combination of promarkers and copics.

Good Morning Everyone! Jane here today with a little card I made following the gorgeous sketch from the latest Sugar Bowl Challenge. I have used the adorable 'Wish Upon a Star' stamp which is available here from Funky Kits. I coloured her in with my Promarkers and added lots of glitter to her wings as the optional Challenge theme is to add sparkle.

I used Bazzil Basics papers from the beautiful Believe stack and layered them onto kraft before sewing around the edges. The ribbon I used to tie my bow is from the Ribbon girl and matches the vintage feel of the papers really well.

Here is a close up of my coloured image, she has such s sweet little face. I love her little box of stars, she looks like she is ready to decorate the Christmas Tree! I added a couple of little sentiment tags and some paper flowers and then finished with some pearls and little gems for extra sparkle!
I hope you have a lovely Wednesday.
Jane
x

Good morning everyone wow can you believe how fast November is flying by...its so close to Christmas I can feel the christmas card panic coming over me...so heres another one to show you...this is using the stunning Rebecca from the Simply Adorables collection...I love love love this collection and shes perfect for Christmas dont you think...look at those beautiful eyes, the sentiment is stamped using one of the Personal Impressions Warm Winter Wishes stamp set from Funky Kits...all the details of the papers and distress ink colours I used for colouring are on my blog if you would like to visit...have a brilliant day everyone and thanks for stopping by

Happy Monday, my lovelies! Pat Frank here with a brand new Sugar Nellie DT card! And, yes...it's another Christmas card!! What can I say?! These next several weeks are a crafter/cardmaker's DREAM! Well, they're a dream for me!! hehe!

Today's card features a precious little angel named "Rosie." She's part of Sugar Nellie's "Fairy Glen" collection! And I gotta tell ya . . . she was a joy to color! (I know...I say that about ALL of my Sugar Nellie stamps and digi images!! But, I swear...it's TRUE!)

This cutie is available HERE at Funky Kits! And should soon be added to Sugar Nellie's online store in America. Stamps and digi images are being added all the time. Check out the new U.S. store HERE.

As always, I colored this image with my Copic Sketch markers and a variety of colored pencils.

Here's another view...

If you'd like more info on how I made this card...as well as a peek at a few more pics, please pop on over to my blog HERE!!

Okey dokey...that's it for me. Have a great week! And for those of you in America celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving! Hugsssss...

Hi there everyone and hope that you'e having a wonderful relaxing weekend. This is Michele here today and I'd like to share with you a card that I've made using one of the adorable stamps from the Home Grown range which is available at Funky Kits.

The adorable image that I've used is called Oliver's new wheels and I've coloured it using promarkers, flexmarkers and aquamarker pens.

The DP is from the Cottage Charms and I've inked the edges using distress inks.

The tag, stars and pennant have been cut out using dies and then I painted the edges using white acrylic paint.

I've made another Christmas card using one of the adorable digis from Funky Kits. This sweet little girl with the friendly squirrel is called Squirrel Delivery Service. I colored the image with my copics and colored pencils and then added Glamour Dust and some little pearls for lots of sparkle. I've kept my card rather simple so that the focus is on the beautiful image. I tied a ornament charm on the bow and added a sentiment and pearl to the snowflakes.

Yep, there's a lovely display of cards over there and a fair few of them are Christmas :)

The sketch for this challenge was done by Maria Therese and her gorgeous card uses a Limited Edition Simply Sassy image that was released last year as part of a special offer...I am so happy I got this image too! She colours up so beautifully!

Fiona has used the sweetest, cuddliest penguins ever! Warm Winter Wishes is the perfect Christmas image and the shades of blue and Kraft are so on trend.

Simply beautiful :)

And a fabulous festive card from Pami using the beautiful fairy Crystal Flakes in the prettiest of colours and with lots of added sparkle and shine :)

Maybe you still have Christmas cards to make yet? Why not join in with our challenge and be in with the chance of winning some new rubber :)

And of course it doesn't have to be a Christmas card...as long as you use a Sugar Nellie image and follow the sketch then you can make anything you fancy.

Hope fully by Thursday I will be safely across the pond and on my way from New York to Philadelphia to see my girl and her new family.

We are all going over to celebrate the wedding all over again with another reception

but this time I just have to show up!

Thanksgiving too, something I look forward to experiencing first hand.

I need to go shopping for this wee fella, I have been seeing him about blog land for years and always thought it was such a cute idea. Let's start a tradition and give the new Mr & Mrs their own elf to sit on a shelf.

If you have an elf, share your story, what is this little guy all about, I would love to hear that he means to your family.

********

So I have some amount of post to schedule here because I ain't getting caught up with my work, its crazy!

Funkykits will still be open while we are all away but orders will not be sent out until we get back, of course digital stamps are self collect and instantly available if you are in need of a quick sugar fix while we are away.

You will also find over on Funkykits , clearance lines, over stock and just great bargain stamps at £1, WOW what great deals we are spoiling you with this birthday month.

Gorjuss stock is getting low on some lines and I will have these discounts held until we get back but the selection is getting smaller at these great prices. Gorjuss Promotion.

We did try to send out an email this week but it failed, our mailing list is big after 5 years and broadband is real slow up here in the hills, so I am not sure what happened, maybe some of you got it but many didn't.

I've made another Christmas card to add to the growing pile... unfortunately it's not my pile - I'm still making for everyone else who's asked me for cards, so mine will be last minute as usual I suppose! Oh well, there's still plenty of time... right?

I've used an older Leanne Ellis stamp - I just love all of these, I think they're gorgeous! This one is Annie with Wreath and she's available from Funky Kits of course.

Some naughty person sent me an email today with "It's only 47 days until Christmas"....evil witch she is as she knows darn well I still have a huge pile of birthday gifts to buy before I can even think about the festivities!

So, how many Christmas cards have you made so far? Are you super organised and have them all done and ready to post when the time comes? Or are you like me..1 down 119 to go :)

I see that there are some gorgeous Christmas cards made and entered into the Sugar Bowl challenge.

Hello Everyone! Jane here today and I have a card to share with you which I made with the gorgeous 'Dreamer' stamp by Leanne Ellis which is available here from Funky Kits. I love all the Leanne Ellis stamps and this image is one of my all time favourites. I used Fancy Pants 'Country Boutique' papers on my card and coloured my image to match them using Promarkers.

I used 3 different papers from the pad and sewed around the edges of two of the layers and stamped a Penny Black sentiment onto the last layer. I added a gorgeous denim pale blue ribbon to the last layer and then popped my image on top with foam pads.

I had lots of fun adding loads of flowers from my stash and some punched fButterflies and then finished with some pearls and glitter to the wings. I hope you love this stamp as much as I do. I have a brand new 'Dreamer' stamp to giveaway on my blog so if you would like to be in with a chance of winning it, please pay me a visit here and leave me a comment! Have a lovely Wednesday!
Jane
x

Good morning its my turn to show you some sugar today...doesn't everyone need a Peace Angel sometime and this Diane Duba beauty is perfect isn't she...so beautifully ethereal...I coloured her with distress inks and teamed her up with these stunning papers from DCWV....I think this beautiful stamp would be wonderful for a Christening card or even a get well soon card don't you...all the details are on my blogas always..enjoy your day everyone and thanks for stopping by

Mina xxx

p.s.I have some mega candy on my blog including a chance to win one of two sets of four Sugar Nellie stamps...just click here to join in

Today's card features a completely adorable little stamped image by Suzanne Woolcott called "Little Miss Attitude." I've had this stamp for more than a year and she's just now being inked up. For shame, for shame! I tell ya, this stamp was such fun to color...and super easy!! And, while this cutie isn't a Christmas stamp per se, I think it totally works!

This sweet stamp is normally available HERE at Funky Kits...but, unfortunately, is out of stock at the moment. No worrries, though...there are plenty of fabulous stamps and digis to tide you over until "Little Miss Attitude" is back in stock! As always, I colored this image with my Copic Sketch markers and a variety of colored pencils. Here's another view of this darlin'...

If you'd like more info on how I made this card...as well as a peek at a few more pics, please pop on over to my blog HERE!!

I am such a sucker for a 6" paper pad and at the moment I cant stay away from My Minds Eye, luving those papers and stamps to go with them, very much my thing.

Yesterday we had Jenny Trueman in the Elgin store demonstrating all thing's Christmassy.

A few sell outs and a lot of bargains to be had,

yes we even cleared our stock of Tim Holtz Vagabond at £100,

some happy crafters will be busy playing with their new toys this Christmas.

Others settled on the Big Shot and Nestie deal of the day.

Got to love your die cut machine, cant think how I would make a card without it.

Promotions on Distressing Inks, Goody Bags, Me to You range from Do crafts and many more deals to tempt our local customers who keep us in business and support our events.

Their loyalty is very much appreciated and we like to give back the best we can. xx

We will be in OLDMELDRUM on Saturday 10th for our final demo of the season, followed on Sunday by my final class of the year ( I'm off on holiday after that)

Samples on the Creative Boutique FB page.

But it was the pretty papers that I sneaked into my bag to take home and play with.

In fact it was these very papers that needed to come home with me

and I shall maybe get a little time to play later on Sunday.

Let's hope I have some black seam binding and card stock or I might just get stuck thinking and looking at pinterest..............what's new there?!

It would be a little greedy to keep all these pretty papers to myself would it not?

How about I give one lucky reader a pad of these papers and a sheet of Leanne Ellis stamp.

I think that there were 8 stamps to a sheet so that's going to be a lot of fun to win.

Be prepared to do some samples with your spoils as there need to be used up, they are too yummy to be left at the bottom of a box. And we want to see what you make, yes we will be linking to your blog where you can show us your makes with this lovely combo or sweet stamps and stunning papers.

Morning everyone and hope that you're having a lovely relaxing Saturday. This is Michele here today and I'd like to share with you a card that I've made using one of the adorable new DIGI images that is available at Funky Kits.

The adorable image is called 'Christmas Puppets' and I've coloured it using promarkers, flexmarkers and aquamarker pens.

The DP is called Winter Blues and I've inked the edges using distress inks.

The snowflakes were cut out using dies and then I distressed them using the rough side of a normal kitchen sponge and then used my aquamarkers to give them a vintage/shabby look.

I love all of our new digis and I know so many of you were happy to see that they were all about the boys! I colored this sweet boy and his puppy with copics and colored pencils, and added some Glamour Dust on his hat and the snow. I embossed my backing paper with a snowflake folder and then added some snowflakes with little pearls. Then I added some ribbon, a bow, and a jingle bell. The sentiment is from the Crafty Impressions Warm Winter Wishes set. You can find this little cutie and our other new digis over at Funky Kits. Since my grandson just recently got a new dog I think this will be my Christmas card to him this year.

As we have grown, so has funkykits and we really are all bursting at the seams.

It's hard to say goodbye to older stamps as the have been an essential part of our journey.

Time change and we have to move forward and we need space because no one wants to

move from the HOUSE OF SUGAR.

What was your first sweet stamp?

Is there anyone still around from FIVE years ago?

I am still sorting stock with Funkykits and adding on a daily basis, we have boxes and boxes of stock to work our way through, some of it will head to the USA where our growing customer base will get a chance at the sweet rubber from Scotland.

Keep your eyes open and tell your friends, your support is an important part of our growth.

If you are in a forum or a FB group, craft club or just friend who get together, let your buddies know that for the month of November there are many bargains to be had over at FUNKYKITS.

Some non Halloween candy to be won on this blog and a lot of birthday banter over on our Face book page too.

(Susan you'll not be after cake being that you don't like pink ;) )

go get your glad rags on girls , we're having a party
the sugar coated kind!

Today we have a new challenge posted over on the Sugar Bowl, with a sketch to follow and an optional colour scheme. I love a good sketch...I always find that having a sketch to follow makes the card making process much easier...it's the imagination gene that I was born without.

As I said, the colour scheme is optional but I always try to follow the theme if possible. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes not quite so easy, but that's why it's called a challenge, right?

I think Louise is also a whizz on the sewing machine. I like the effect of stitching on cards, so much so that I did buy myself a sewing machine a couple of Christmas's ago, but it was an evil machine that mocked me every time I plugged it in...and the devil wouldn't even sew in a straight line ha!

I packed it's bobbins and needles and sent it to live with my Mum and Dad and the naughty machine is apparently as good as gold for them.

I hope you will find some play time and join in with our challenge...whether you can sew or not!